Jan-09 Stats: 362.3M Mobile Subscribers; 5.65M Broadband

Reliance was the highest contributor to India’s net additions to the mobile subscriber base in January with 4.95 million. India added 15.41 million subscribers during January to reach a subscriber base of 362.30 million, up from 346.89 million in December, according to the latest TRAI report. Vodafone added 2.4 million subscribers and Bharti Airtel added 2.73 million.

Wireline: Wirelines are on a decline as January recorded a drop of 150,000 wirelines from 37.9 million subscribers in December to 37.75 million. In January 2007, India had 40.3 million wirelines.

Even as private operators Bharti Airtel, Reliance and HFCL Infotech recorded a growth in wireline subscriber base, the PSUs contributed to the downturn, recording a total loss of 21,9914 subscribers. BSNL saw a drop from 29,500,460 subscribers in December to 29,291,013 despite its attempts to increase uptake such as the zero rent scheme launched for rural landline customers.

Sistema Shyam Teleservices also recorded a decline in wireline subscribers from 141,966 in December to 138,747 in January while MTNL wireline subscriber base slipped from 3,533,811 to 3,523,344.

Broadband:

Wireless and Broadband Subscribers in India

Two years ago, there were just 2.1 million broadband subscribers. Now the figure has more than doubled to 5.65 million connections. The country added 200,000 broadband subscribers in the month of January.

India is on track to reach 10 million broadband subscribers by September 2012, as we had projected earlier. However, from here on, India will have to add broadband subscribers at an increasing rate, else it may take longer.

3 Comments

It's been more than couple of years that I see almost everyone around me with a mobile phone. Maids and auto drivers having mobile phone is no longer a topic of amusement. So, where are these subscribers being added? It would be interesting to see the circle-wise growth rates.

If one adds the population to the November chart (to get teledensity), it can throw up the next growth pockets. It's tough to improve the triple digit teledensity of metros. The low teledensity are the ones which will power the next 150-200 million.